[LA has already linked to the NYT article, but since it make the wingnut’s blood boil, I’ll go into detail about the memo itself.]

Or fake. Or not reflective of what Bush really though. Or couldn’t be considered the “smoking gun” that proved that Bush was intent upon invading Iraq even if WMDs couldn’t be found, connections to 9/11 couldn’t be found, and even if Iraq couldn’t logistically pose a threat to the United States… I’ve got a question for all of you in this camp: how many memos will it take for you to change your beliefs?

One more memo has popped up. Let’s review the latest bombshell.

Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says

LONDON — In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush’s public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.

But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair’s top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

So this memo detailed a meeting which took place while Bush is still trying to tell the world that, no, he really didn’t intend to invade Iraq if Saddam only played nice!

Yeah. Right.

Why else is the timing of this meeting important? Cue the article again:

“The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March,” Mr. Manning [Mr. Blair’s chief foreign policy adviser at the time] wrote, paraphrasing the president. “This was when the bombing would begin.”

The timetable came at an important diplomatic moment. Five days after the Bush-Blair meeting, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was scheduled to appear before the United Nations to present the American evidence that Iraq posed a threat to world security by hiding unconventional weapons.

So Colin’s supposed diplomatic effort to reign Iraq in without waging war was a farce. A show. It was staged to ramp up America for going to war, not to prevent a war from happening.

Bush already made his decision to goto war with Iraq. He made it before he told the rest of the nation. He made it without caring about whether or not Iraq had WMDs or posed a threat to this country. It’s proven now. It’s fact. This is not disputable.

To Bush’s defenders seeking to claim that these memos aren’t real, take note:

Two senior British officials confirmed the authenticity of the memo, but declined to talk further about it, citing Britain’s Official Secrets Act, which made it illegal to divulge classified information.

This memo, just like the Downing Street Memos, are very real.

For those of Bush’s defenders who accept that this memo is real, but still don’t think it says anything that we didn’t know already, let me get into further details about the memo. Besides going over the basics of a military operation and what a post-Saddam Iraq would look like, the memo documents that Bush and Blair discuss ways in which to spark the war. Just a reason or two they could sell to their respective nations… It doesn’t matter if they manufactured those reasons.

Here’s one example from the lie factory, detailed in the memo:

“The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours,” the memo says, attributing the idea to Mr. Bush. “If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach.”

Brilliant! We’ll have the Gulf of Tonkin all over again!

You know, if there wasn’t a history of our government lying to us and fabricating incidents to goad America into wars, I’d call this part of the memo unbelievable. But it’s wholly believable, since lying and fabricating incidents to get America into wars has been the policy or many presidents — Bush, apparently, is no different, at least in his thought process about it. Where Bush is different lies in the fact that he succeeded in taking us to war for no reason, but that’s a whole ‘nother discussion.

The memo also shows just how clueless both Bush and Blair were about what a post-Saddam Iraq would be like:

The memo indicates the two leaders envisioned a quick victory and a transition to a new Iraqi government that would be complicated, but manageable. Mr. Bush predicted that it was “unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups.” Mr. Blair agreed with that assessment.

Bush said that exactly what is happening in Iraq right now was “unlikely”? And Blair agreed? Fucknuts. The least Bush could have done is asked some members of his father’s cabinet. Let’s see what Brent Scowcroft has to say on the matter:

BRENT SCOWCROFT, National Security Adviser to President George Bush Snr., Interviewed in 1996: Saddam Hussein is not a threat to his neighbors. He’s a nuisance; he’s an annoyance; but he’s not a threat. That we achieved. It was never our objective to get Saddam Hussein. Indeed, had we tried, we still might be occupying Baghdad. That would have turned a great success into a very messy probably defeat.

Wow. Scowcroft, in 1996, just predicted everything that’s happening today. Either he must be super smart or Bush is a total fucking idiot.

I’ll let all of you guess which way I’m leaning on that one.

The original Downing Street Memo, from 6/23/02, said “intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy,” which was the British government’s view of how the Bush administration was handling the drive for war with Iraq. The “policy” being that a war must take place, and the “intelligence and facts” being the lies that Bush told us about WMDs and the threat that Saddam posed to us. And with each successive memo that comes out of the British government, we learn that they only back up what was detailed in the original Downing Street Memo.

When will Bush’s remaining defenders wake up? When will these lies, these crimes, lead to an impeachment?

Additional reading: Ron at Why Are We Back details quite a few instances where Bush claimed that war with Iraq was the last option, he never wanted war, etc. Ron includes a quote from Bush along these lines that Bush uttered as recently as last week.

This entry by tas was posted on Monday, March 27th, 2006 at 7:53 am and is filed under Iraq, BushCo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.